united state

Type: 
Geographic Name
Subfield: 
a
Alias: 
united state

America on fire

the untold history of police violence and Black rebellion since the 1960s
2021
"Hinton's sweeping narrative uncovers an altogether different history, taking us on a troubling journey from Detroit in 1967 and Miami in 1980 to Los Angeles in 1992 and beyond to chart the persistence of structural racism and one of its primary consequences, the so-called urban riot. Hinton offers a critical corrective: the word riot was nothing less than a racist trope applied to events that can only be properly understood as rebellions-explosions of collective resistance to an unequal and violent order. As she suggests, if rebellion and the conditions that precipitated it never disappeared, the optimistic story of a post-Jim Crow United States no longer holds. Black rebellion, America on Fire powerfully illustrates, was born in response to poverty and exclusion, but most immediately in reaction to police violence. In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson launched the 'War on Crime,' sending militarized police forces into impoverished Black neighborhoods. Facing increasing surveillance and brutality, residents threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at officers, plundered local businesses, and vandalized exploitative institutions. Hinton draws on exclusive sources to uncover a previously hidden geography of violence in smaller American cities, from York, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, to Stockton, California. The central lesson from these eruptions-that police violence invariably leads to community violence-continues to escape policymakers, who respond by further criminalizing entire groups instead of addressing underlying socioeconomic causes. The results are the hugely expanded policing and prison regimes that shape the lives of so many Americans today. Presenting a new framework for understanding our nation's enduring strife, America on Fire is also a warning: rebellions will surely continue unless police are no longer called on to manage the consequences of dismal conditions beyond their control, and until an oppressive system is finally remade on the principles of justice and equality"-- Provided by publisher.

A peculiar indifference

the neglected toll of violence on black America
2020
Describes the dimensions and consequences of violence in black communities, explores its causes, and offers an urgent plea for long-overdue social action to end it.

Caravan to the north

Misael's long walk
Presents a novel in verse following the story of Misael Mart?nez, a boy from El Salvador who goes with his family to join a migrant caravan heading to the U.S. Sad to leave their beloved home, they still have many terrible reasons to do so, but when they reach Tijuana they are met with protests and tear gas.
Cover image of Caravan to the north
Subscribe to RSS - united state